Nicolas Roche leads the Team Sky train during today's opening stage of the Ruta del Sol in southern Spain.
By Brian Canty
Nicolas Roche has said he still has a “lot of work” to do as he continues to build his form in the first weeks of the new season.
The Irishman is racing the five-day Ruta del Sol in southern Spain this week and on today’s opening stage he crossed the line in Sevilla in the same time as stage winner and former teammate Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff).
Roche’s job for the race is to protect the interests of team leader Wout Poels.
But today’s opener was a relatively straight-forward one in advance of the big mountain battles that lie ahead.
The first of those is tomorrow on stage two where a steep cat 2 climb some 23 kilometres from the finish is an ideal place for a race-winning attack.
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Poels should be there or thereabouts on the climb and won’t want to wait until Saturday's 21-kilometre time-trial or Sunday’s concluding stage to make an assault on the leader's jersey
So expect a furious pace into the base of the climb, with Roche to be leading the charge into it.
“That’s what I need now; to get some rhythm and some leg speed," said Roche.
"Wout is the plan for us this week so we’ll do all we can to keep him where he should be.
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“We have (Ben) Swift for the hard sprints but Wout is the main goal for us.”
Asked will they be aiming to take the jersey as soon as tomorrow he said: “We’re not sure yet, it might not be hard enough for the top guys, but you never know.”
Tomorrow’s stage is a 186-kilometre leg from Palomares del Rio to Cordoba
It’s pretty flat for 160 of those but the road rises to over 500 metres with 20 kilometres to go so while not so difficult it should force a split in the bunch.
Meanwhile, Stephen Clancy was also in action today; the Novo Nordisk man crossing the line 18 seconds down on Marcel Kittel (Etixx-QuickStep) in the opening stage of the Volta Ao Algarve.
The race concludes on Sunday.
Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Cyclista del Sol
Stage 1: Almonaster la Real – Sevilla (165.2km)
1 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Tinkoff, 3:56:02
2 Bert Van Lerberghe (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen @s/t
3 Juan Jose Lobato (Esp) Movistar @s/t
4 Oscar Gatto (Ita) Tinkoff @s/t
5 Gijs Van Hoecke (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen @s/t
6 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis @s/t
7 Reto Hollenstein (Swi) IAM Cycling @s/t
8 Raymond Kreder (Ned) Roompot-Oranje Peloton @s/t
9 Tosh Van der Sande (Bel) Lotto-Soudal @s/t
10 David Tenner (Aus) IAM Cycling @s/t
101 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky @s/t
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